A Place To Call Home provides all necessary training and supports to become a certified adoptive home for identified children that are legally free for adoption placed by the Arizona Department of Economic Security’s Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF). A Place to Call Home recommends any family interested in adoption become a licensed foster home as well because of the training and experience gained through foster care. In addition, many foster placements become legally free for adoption while in the care of their foster parents and the foster parents are commonly one of the first to be considered to adopt the child. Adopting a child through A Place to Call Home is a service provided at minimal or no expense to the family as adoption fees may be waived for financial hardship.

On-going support and supervision is provided by A Place To Call Home as well as any specialized or individualized training that is deemed necessary to enhance the skill level of the adoptive parents, in particular, for the special needs of foster children available for adoption. A certified adoptive home for the ACYF Adoptions program may adopt an unlimited number of children. All adoption placements are made by ACYF, with A Place To Call Home advocating for the child and adoptive family’s best interests. Finalized adoptions are ordered by the Juvenile Courts in Arizona, based on the recommendations of ACYF.

Adoptive placements are permanent, therefore A Place To Call home places great emphasis and takes diligent time in assisting families and ACYF when matching potential adoptive children to an adoptive family. In an effort to contribute to a successful family dynamic, a child (ages 0 to 18) profile is constructed during the adoption certification process to identify the child best suited for your family as well as the best family suited for the child. The child profile information is collected from the adoptive family, incorporating the special needs of an adoptive child, the family’s skill level and the family’s care interests.

The ACYF Adoptions program is for children in foster care who are legally free for adoption, ranging in age from newborn up to a child’s 18th birthday. A majority of the children adopted are ages 1 to 10 years old, however, the children most in need of adoptive homes are in their teen years. A child placed in an adoptive home has formerly been removed from the legal custody of their parents or guardians by the State of Arizona’s Child Protective Services (CPS) or voluntarily placed in foster care by their birth parents or legal guardian. The ACYF Adoptions program is for children in the State of Arizona’s custody that are legally free for adoption, meaning, their birth parents’ rights have been severed or relinquished. Children available for adoption require very special care and extraordinary commitment from their adoptive parents. Children in foster care that are available for adoption commonly have suffered physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment and/or neglect and are in desperate need for a safe, permanent home with a loving and committed foster family.